Naruto Tidbits
by Silvyia
Summary: A small collection of little stories I felt for writing about Naruto. Some of the stories will be a part of my story, The Higher We Climb, some of it will be in the actual Naruto Universe, and some of it will be in other peoples' original AUs and stories. It all depends on what I felt like writing at the time. Rated T for now, might change to M in later chapters.
1. The Higher We Climb - Chapter 8 Extra

((A/N: Yo! This story will mostly be about little Naruto things I wrote up on a whim and wanted to share with you all. As the description says, some of it will be little tidbits from my story, The Higher We Climb, some of it will be in the actual Naruto universe, and some of it will be in other peoples' AUs as well. This story is just for me to post everything I wanted to get out when I get the motivation to write something is all. I hope you enjoy them!

This chapter is how Happy was feeling in chapter 8, when Rae was leaving. Let me know your thoughts!))

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To say that Seiji was sad to see the little girl go was an understatement. No, not just any understatement. It had to be _the_ understatement. The worst understatement he had ever made, perhaps. He was madly wishing it wasn't one he had to make, but it was there nevertheless, as if it didn't care what he cared for or what he wanted.

Seiji squeezed her hand gently when the young girl began sniffling beside him. She looked up at him with her wide, wet eyes, and he nearly recoiled in guilt. He didn't know why felt so guilty, but he knew that he did. He felt immensely guilty. He entertained the brief idea of picking her up and just running back home with her, but he knew he couldn't do something as silly as that. He knew first hand how much he loved this little girl, he would not force the others to forgo their own love for her just for his own selfish reasons.

He swears he can hear his heart shattering into pieces when she pulls her hand from his grasp, and hearing her sniffle as she walked away made him wish that he could take it all back. Every harsh word he had ever said, every mean glare he had sent even in her general direction, every insult he ever even _thought_ of her. He would take it all back for just one more second with the girl.

And then he hears his friend and coworker call out for the little girl to wait, and Seiji can't tell whether he wants to be glad or frustrated with the man. He chooses to be angry at him instead.

Takechi Eiji was a clever, clean man with a record of being exactly on time and to get all of his work done in under an hour with or without being under pressure.

So, when he began making excuses that he was too swamped with work to see the little girl off, or to see her even at all in the past few days that she had needed him, Seiji knew it was bullshit. It was bullshit and it was a shitty thing to do, to hide from the little girl who needed him then in that time more than she had ever needed anybody, and for him to run away because he was too afraid to face her. To afraid to tell her that he was with Miyuki when she died, too afraid to tell her that he was so ridden with guilt about what had happened that he couldn't face a nine year old child in agony.

Takechi was afraid, and Seiji was angry.


	2. The Higher We Climb - Chapter 11 Extra

((A/N: This is Naruto's perspective from chapter 11, 'A Little Trouble', from when he runs into Rae. It explains why he was being chased, and what he was thinking when he was staring down at Rae. I didn't feel like going all the way through to when Rae buys him Ramen, so this little tidbit should be enough!))

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A little boy, no older than four years of age and just barely tall enough to sit in a stool on his own, huffs and pants through his teeth as he runs, as far and as fast as he possibly could. The wind is flying through his hair and his eyes sting from the rush of air across them and it makes him almost want to cry, but he doesn't. He tells himself that he is a tough boy, that something as simple as this couldn't hold him down. It wouldn't make him cry.

He had just been having fun. He had borrowed a bit of money from some mean adults a little over an hour ago, and, yeah, okay, maybe he wasn't exactly intending on giving them the money back, but so what? They were mean. So he borrowed their money permanently, and he had gone to buy some stuff from the ninja store he knew well. He passed that store every day, sometimes pressing up against the glass to get a glance inside.

There were ninja tools and ninja weapons all over the place, and he had always thought they looked _so frickin' cool._ So he borrowed some money and went in to get something. Anything, really. He hadn't had anything specific in mind.

Then again, when he took a glance at the prices, he nearly went white as a sheet. A clean sheet, mind you, not one of his sheets.

They were all so expensive! Even with all this money he had borrowed from those jerks, he couldn't afford anything! Not a single thing!

At least, he thought so, until he came across these stacks of paper with fancy writings on them and some kanji he didn't know how to read. They were expensive if you wanted to buy a whole bunch of them, but Naruto had borrowed just enough money to buy one of them.

So he bought one, and even thought the shop keeper gave him a wary look - he got those all the time - Naruto ran off with his fancy paper.

Then he realized he had no idea what they even were for. He didn't care for the most part, though. They were from the cool ninja store, so they must be something super cool!

So, of course he went around to some back alley that he knew had a bunch of crates to sit on. It took hours and hours for Naruto to come up with something to do, but even then, he was stuck. He grumbled under his breath and got steadily angrier and angrier, and after a full day of sitting on this one crate doing _nothing_ with this stupid paper that _did absolutely nothing cool_ he finally stood up off the crate, jumping to his thin legs.

"That's _it!_ " He shouted, angrily. He slapped the fancy paper with its' stupid fancy writing down onto the side of the box, almost like pushing a bully up against a wall or something. He started yelling at the paper, telling it how dumb and worthless it was and how he wasted his borrowed money that he could have spent at Ichiraku's and how he was so angry at that dumb paper and, and, and then,

And then the paper lit up blue.

He stared at the paper in awe. He retracted his tiny fist, and when it stuck to the crate, his grin grew and grew until it felt like it would slip right off of his face.

And then the paper caught fire and he began running away.

To be fair, Naruto hadn't exactly intended for the crates to explode.

But they had, and apparently they were filled food or something. Naruto actually almost felt bad about blowing them up for a second, until he looked at the burnt food on the ground and fake gagged. Yucky vegetables. He did the world a favor by getting rid of those things, then.

But then came the part he was most familiar with. The part where the adults started chasing him and throwing kitchen stuff at him - he thinks he once saw them throw a spoon at him and he might have laughed - and then came the part he was also familiar with. The part where he runs into somebody and they both fall to the ground and the person gets the wind knocked out of them. And then came the part he wasn't so familiar with, as he looked up to shout at them as usual, only to find out that they were _really pretty._

Like, crazy pretty. Naruto thought that they had to be royalty or something, with such clean, white hair and deep blue eyes that were oh so pretty and _oh wow, were those red spots?_

And then he saw that they couldn't breathe and he gets up, embarrassed. He gets suddenly angry at himself for almost killing a pretty boy. But then he thinks it's justified, because no boy has a right to look that pretty. He almost thought the boy was a girl for a second, which is a good thing really, because if he were a girl Naruto probably would have confessed his love for that boy right then and there.

And then the pretty boy grabs his hand and starts running with him - _with him,_ Naruto has to remind himself, _he's running with me, not from me or at me_ \- and suddenly Naruto is sporting a grin larger than any other grin he's ever had, and he thinks maybe today is a really good day after all.


	3. The Higher We Climb - Kamiko Shimizu

((A/N: As promised, a little omake about Kamiko Shimizu! You know, before she died! Fun, right?

This story takes place before the beginning of THWC.

Enjoy the chapter!))

* * *

A yawn.

A quick rub of the eyes.

A pair of eyes slowly sliding shut.

The small camp of shinobi was filled to the brim with tired, borderline exhausted fighters.

But nobody could sleep. Not that they didn't _want_ to, of course. More than two thirds of the people present would gladly drop everything, their own bodies included, if only they could take a nap for even a split second. But no, they couldn't. They would not. Not when their comrades' life was on the line if they were to fall asleep. If they closed their eyes and let themselves succumb to the darkness they so desperately wanted to succumb to, there was the chance that they would be attacked in their sleep. It might be a slim chance, it might not be. It's happened before.

Today was the eighth year of fighting in the Third Shinobi War, and Kamiko Shimizu wanted to go home.

She was only fifteen years old. Starting in the war at the age of seven had been rough, but back then it meant nothing to her. She didn't like the idea of killing children who were barely old enough to hold their kunai properly, nor did she like the idea of killing those who were experienced enough to know exactly where to slice.

She didn't like any of it.

But she still did it.

Back then, the war had meant nothing to her. Konoha was less of a home to her and more of a place to live in. Her Clan was less of a family to her and more of a crowd. Her own home was less like a place of comfort for her, and more like a prison.

Back then, it meant nothing.

But now, it means everything.

Now, Konoha was the place she thought of when she wanted a warm, hearty meal before bed at night. Her Clan was still not a personal family to her, but they looked up to her for guidance and she would provide it for them. Her home was finally just that - finally, it was a _home._

All because of one little girl.

Kamiko shut her eyes, but did not sleep. Her arms rubbed against her chest in an effort to warm up her core. She thought of her, of a shock of messy hair that could not be tamed, of blue eyes that were filled with hope. Memories played behind her shut eyelids. Memories of the day she came into this world, when her father, her cold, rough father who cared for nothing, had looked down at the baby girl with a sort of hope and longing in his eyes that made Kamiko's chest ache.

Did he look at her like that when she had been born?

She remembers clearly when the little baby was passed to her. She had been lucky enough to have been called back by the Fourth Hokage right before her sister was born, so she was there that day to witness it. She knew it wasn't actual luck - the Fourth was kind of a sucker, and Kamiko knew he had just pulled a favor for her after she had been serving the Village so loyally for so long. But whether by luck or by pulled strings, she had been there.

She didn't bother to hide her tears that day. Or her smile. Or her laughter.

She didn't care about the people in the room, not the nurses, not her mother, and not her father. She didn't care what they all thought of her, so she felt no need to keep up appearances in that instance.

Or, that's what she tells herself.

With a smile, Kamiko thinks that she knew perfectly well the only reason she had cried and laughed at the time was that because she had completely _forgotten_ everyone else in the room in that one instance. She held the little bundle of soft pink skin and tiny, flabby arms. The baby was crying, cheeks red with exertion and eyes clenched tightly shut in her wails. Kamiko cried with her. And for a moment, the baby stopped crying, and opened her tiny, blue eyes to peer up at the older girl holding her. Then they cried together, and Kamiko remembers every part of it. This was it, she thought. This was the only person in the world she loved with all her heart. This was the only person in the world who could love her back.

This was the only person in the world who did not expect her to hold the weight of the world on her shoulders.

And Kamiko smiles as the memories of the little grow smiling up at her play behind her lids. Always happy laughter and bright smiles. Eyes that seemed far too intelligent, yes, but never in a bad way. She was proud of her smart omouto. She was proud of the girl who could smile every day despite what was going on behind closed doors. And why wouldn't she? She had no idea what was going on here. She didn't know what was happening behind the curtains over her blue eyes.

And Kamiko's eyes shoot open when there are shouts of intruders, of an attack coming from the North. She gathers her sword and she stands despite the aching pain in her joints and the tired numbness in her arms.

She fights so that little girl would never _have_ to know what goes on behind that curtain.

And with a smile, Kamiko runs into battle once again.

* * *

((A/N: I love writing Kamiko tbh. Probably as much as I love writing Kenta. Let me know what you think about this chapter.))


	4. The Higher We Climb - Kenta Shimizu

((A/N: Another quick omake I wanted to write. Most of these are pretty short, I know, but keep in mind they're just small tidbits(as the name suggests haha) that I couldn't get out of my head and I didn't feel like adding it into the story itself.

This one is a small side story for Kenta. It delves into his personal life a bit, since every time he appears in the story itself, it's as Rae's bodyguard/teacher/friend/potential future bf. So here you go! Personal Kenta stuff!

Enjoy this chapter!))

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Warm sunlight, bright and cheerful and welcoming, filtered in through blue curtains that were drawn open and tied back by neat knots, done with a precise hand. There was no sound other than the silent, barely there shuffling coming from the small bathroom connected to the bedroom.

Kenta Shimizu woke with the sun, and he stayed silent so as to not wake up his sleeping mother.

He flitted across the small bathroom, barely big enough to hold one person in it. It was nothing like the room he had once washed himself in when he had been invited in at the Shimizu Head's Main home, but Kenta was not complaining. It might have been small and stifling from time to time, but it was a part of his home. He had memories in that small, stifling bathroom.

He had been in this house since he was a baby, and he could vividly remember the baths his mother used to give him, and the small bears of bubbles she would create for his enjoyment.

He allowed a genuine smile to cover his features, but he didn't stop in his task.

Once the clothing was properly washed and rinsed, he took them from the basin and began twisting the clothing to get as much water out of it as he could. Afterwards, he put them in a small plastic bucket and carried them outside.

He glanced up at the sky, and his eyes narrowed in thought. The sky was still slightly dark out, with the sun's rays just barely coming over the Hokage Monument and filtering in through peoples' windows in the early morning, but from the looks of it, it would not rain today. Finally allowing himself to make the slightest of noise, a small humming from the back of his throat, he set out to putting each of the damp clothing pieces onto the lines in the front. They should be dry after lunch, some time before dinner even, if the wind kept going at the pace it was at now.

After the task was complete, he reached one damp hand upwards to brush the dark blue hair out of his face. It was down at the moment, and he remembered with a small tilt of his lips why he could no longer place his hair up into the small ponytail he had taken to wearing it in.

The Heiress to his Clan was an odd one, for sure. He had been perplexed when she'd taken his hair tie right from his own head, but he hadn't let it show.

After all, as a Branch member, anything that was his was hers.

With a smile that might have been just slightly bitter, he walked inside his home once again, masking his footsteps so not a single creak would sound out from the rickety floor boards beneath him.

His mother was still asleep, and he didn't want to wake her. She would need her sleep. Kenta knew she had a mission today that would take her out of the village, and would likely keep her away for a month or two. She had only just gotten back from a separate mission, but since the last mission she was on was only a few weeks long, she did not get long to recover from it since she had sustained no injuries from it.

As he set about to making breakfast for the two of them, he thought. He thought of his father, the older Shimizu man who had died years ago in battle when he was just a child. He'd been young, and of course he had wanted to cry and sob and call out for his tou-san, but when he had seen his mother, his beautiful mother who was the strongest woman he'd ever known, break down and cry herself to sleep every night, he didn't cry. He was the only other person in her life at that point, and it was in that instance that Kenta knew he'd have to be there for her. He'd have to be her rock while she coped.

And maybe he'd taken it too literal. Maybe he shouldn't have learned how to perfectly mask what he truly felt inside, or how to make people believe he was feeling something else entirely than what he really felt. His mother never seemed to know the difference, and perhaps that was why she was able to stop crying soon.

It didn't stop her from looking tired each morning, and exhausted each night she came home.

"Kaa-chan," he spoke silently, one hand resting lightly on his mother's shoulder. He let his chakra trickle out slowly through his hand, the skin contact with his mother's shoulder making their chakra mix in the early morning. Her chakra felt the same way she looked; tired and barely there. His was comforting and smooth against her rough, exhausted energy, and she blinked bleary eyes up at him. He smiled a smile that he did not feel. She smiled back.

"What's this? You made breakfast again?" She let out a gentle laugh, sitting up in her bed and accepting the small tray. "One of these days someone is going to notice that you're more of a mother than I am!"

And he resists the urge to wince. She says it in a genial, happy tone, a groggy kind of rasp to her voice, but he knows that it is not a joke. He knows she wants to be a mother to him, he knows she hates how much he had to grow up for her to pick herself up again.

He knows she is depressed about the fact that she could not have another child to baby.

His placid smile remains, even when a few strands of his hair fall in front of his eyes.

"Oh, you look just like your tou-san when you grow out your hair, darling," her voice is gentle, more genuine than before, and there is a small spark of life in her eyes for just a moment before it is gone. His smile is a little strained, but also a little more genuine than before.

Of course, that little spark of light in her eyes was the only reason he chose to grow it out in the first place.

"Aa, perhaps I'll get a woman as beautiful as you with this hair, then?" He jokes back, hoping that maybe he'll get that spark again. It does appear, and he's glad when she laughs a happy laugh that seemed more genuine than any laugh she used to have.

"Please, with your charming personality, I'm afraid I may have to fight for your attention in a few years!"

And the laugh he lets loose is not genuine, because he knows that isn't the case. She will always be the first on his mind, always the only woman he'll ever be worried about.

"Unless it's that young Heiress you're always hanging around, mm? Maybe I'll let you slip just this once..."

He does not miss the sly tone in her voice, or the fact that the spark is there again in her ice blue eyes, and he thinks that if the only way to make her smile again - _truly_ smile again - is to suffer through her odd taunts about his relationship with his charge, then he will suffer through them. He still lets a small twitch come to his lips, a purpose giveaway to the amused embarrassment he does not really feel.

But maybe the slightest tint to his cheeks isn't purposely faked.

His mother still laughs, and he still considers it a success.

* * *

((A/N: I swear I did not mean for this to get so depressing. It wrote itself, though, as usual, and oh fuck I just gave him a sad childhood. Why would I do that to my precious salt bae? I don't know. Someone stop me before I write more depressing stuff about my characters' lives.

So basically his Dad died during the Third Shinobi War, and he grew up a little too fast so that his mother could mourn in peace without having to worry about the house or about money or food or anything like that. His mother is also unable to have more children bc of old injuries. Kenta had been, quite bluntly, an accident. A happy accident in his mother's opinion, but they certainly hadn't been _trying_ for a kid at the time.

Leave reviews, reviews are love!))


	5. The Higher We Climb - Kamiko Keiko

((A/N: The first omake to say thank you for a year of The Higher We Climb! Thank you all so, so much! It's been so much fun writing the story so far, and I intend to keep on writing the story for as long as I can - or, I mean, until it's finished. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna be writing this story until the day I die, but...

You get what I mean.

The first omake of the day!

Some Keiko and Kamiko time. This happens before THWC. Keep in mind - Rae and Keiko are not the same people. They have different personalities, ideas, thoughts, and memories, so if Keiko is acting differently than Rae, it's because she's _not_ Rae. Keep it in mind, that's all.

Enjoy this chapter!))

* * *

A slender hand reached up to cover a grinning mouth, holding down the snickers that threatened to spill from the woman's mouth.

A head of messy white hair perked up at the noise. Turning her head in every direction, searching around wildly for the source of the noise, the younger girl held a sour pout on her features, even if she was rather entertained.

"Imouto," a quiet, feminine voice whispered. The little girl turns her head quickly to the side, eyes wide in an attempt to find her elder sister. However, instead of finding her sister hidden away behind the doorway she was _sure_ her voice came from, however, she found nothing. Pulling back from where she had jumped into dramatically in the hopes of catching the older woman off guard, she crosses her arms and lets her mouth twist to the side as she looks around, thinking heavily.

Where could she be?

" _Imouto,_ " a voice whispered right by the little girl's ear. The girl let out a high pitched scream, jumping away from the spot the all too familiar voice came from. However, before she could turn around to yell at her older sister, two slender yet strong arms wrapped themselves around her waist.

Within moments, she was being tossed into the air.

"I found you, Keiko-chan!"

The little girl, Keiko, grinned at the voice. Her screams turned into laughter as she's tossed into the air and caught again.

"Kami! Let me gooo!"

The older girl let a soft smile color her features, staring at the back of the head of messy white, untamable hair as she tosses the girl into the air one more time. Then, she pursed her lips together and held the smaller girl to her chest, humming as if she was really thinking about the answer.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that, imouto? I'm not a Kami."

Keiko smiles innocently, blinking her wide, blue eyes up at her elder sister.

"What are you talking about, Kami-nee? I'm just shortening your name, is all!"

She rewards the younger girl's innocent look with a dry, deadpan look of her own.

Keiko giggles to herself.

"But Kami-nee, you're so _cool!_ Just like a real Kami! Maybe I should call you Kami-sama..." Keiko adds the last part under her breath, but the elder girl heard it loud and clear and began to, in punishment, turning around in a circle quickly while still holding onto her dear younger sister.

"Aah! Kami-nee, no!" She protests, despite the giggles flying from her lips every few seconds. "No, no! I'm dizzy! I'm gonna _throw up if you don't stop!_ "

White, smooth hair, much different than the wild mane in the older girl's arms, shake back and forth in denial.

"No, too bad imouto. You were being sarcastic again, this is your punishment!"

A squawk of protest.

"I'm four! I don't do _sarcasm!_ I do _humor._ Something you clearly don't have, Kami-nee!"

She starts spinning quicker.

"Kamiko-chan, what is going on in here?" A sudden voice speaks up from the doorway of the house. The happy, careless grin on the older girl's face suddenly drops without warning, and her feet still in her spot. The sudden stop causes the younger girl to blanch - she really was getting dizzy now, and the sudden stop wasn't helping her situation. Looking up at her elder sister, Keiko was saddened to see that her dearest sister's fun, loving smile had smoothed out into an emotionless, blank mask of indifference.

Oh. It looks like Otou-san is home.

Truthfully, Keiko has never really known why her nee-chan doesn't get along with otou-san. Sure, sometimes Otou-san had to be a little meaner than usual because of Clan stresses, but he was always so kind to _her,_ so why did nee-chan not like him?

Kamiko releases her sister gently onto the ground and turns on her heel to look towards their father - her back straight and arms at her sides, she looked like the very definition of a good soldier.

Keiko thinks it doesn't suit her happy, carefree sister. She wants the happy times to come back. She loved her otou-san, but if him being here meant her nee-chan was no longer happy, then maybe he should go away for a little while longer. Just five more minutes, please.

Turning towards the closing front door, Keiko watches as her otou-san and okaa-chan both enter the house, taking off their shoes and shrugging off jackets - at least okaa-chan shrugged on her jacket, but she took otou-san's for him.

"Okaeri, Otou-sama, Okaa-sama," came Kamiko's robotic reply.

Emiko smiled softly and nodded her head. "Hello, Kamiko-chan." Ice blue eyes turn down to Kamiko's side, and, ignoring Kamiko's response of shuffling a bit to the side to step slightly in front of her younger sister, Emiko smiled down at her as well. "And hello to you, too, little Keiko-chan!"

Keiko grinned, the dizziness mostly gone by now, and runs over to her mother with arms outstretched.

"Okaa-chan!"

Emiko bends down and catches the little four year old girl in her arms easily, picking her up and hugging her close to her chest.

"Did you miss me, sweetheart? Your father and I sure missed you!"

Keiko grins an excited, childlike smile and turns to greet her father as well. He sends her a simple, small smile, but moves further into the house without responding. Watching him leave from the corner of her eye, she sees him place a hand on Kamiko's shoulder and say something to her under his breath. Kamiko's face gives nothing away as to what she's feeling or what she's hearing from her father, and after a moment of silence, she nods to him.

"Imouto," Kamiko calls out. Keiko immediately holds out her hands to be grabbed from her mother's arms, something which Kamiko does so happily. Now safely tucked away into her elder sister's arms, Keiko sends a bright grin up to her sister, which is returned with a smaller, dimmer smile.

"Imouto, I have to go now, alright? Yondaime-sama has a mission for me."

Keiko's grin slips off her face, leaving a childish pout in its' wake. Her small hands grip the front of her elder sister's mission gear - she had _just_ come back from a mission, couldn't she stay for a while? Just a few hours, at the very least? What was so important that her sister had to be ripped away from her the moment she finally got her back? Keiko tried to convey these thoughts by tugging on the front of her sister's grey chest plate, then slapping one small, chubby hand down onto her shoulder, right where Keiko knew the red tattoos were.

"No! Kami-nee, you promised to spend time with me!"

Kamiko's smile turned a bit sour, and Keiko did not miss the discreet look she sent to their mother who was making her way past the two of them. Her mother placed a delicate hand on Kamiko's shoulder and smiled at her.

"Stay safe, dear."

And then she walks off without waiting for a response.

"I know I promised to stay with you, imouto, but Yondaime-sama really needs me back. I'm the only one he can trust with this mission, okay?"

Keiko lets a sour frown take home on her face, and Kamiko lets out a quiet laugh.

"That's the price to pay for being the best, hmm imouto?"

With only the slightest bit of hesitation, Keiko nods along with her sister's words.

"Okay. I love you, Kami-nee."

A warm, soft smile is what she gets in return.

"And I love you, imouto."

* * *

((A/N: Ta-da! Kamiko is about 15 in this omake, since she's eleven years older than Keiko. Two years away from her death. Happy thoughts, right?

Enjoy the first omake of several to come! This was one of the requested ones.

See you next time! Leave reviews, reviews are love!))


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